In the past, I have created data-flow graphs in dot notation. Some of my colleagues still do. The otherwise-fabulous yEd graph-tool is unable to open dot files.
However it turns out that someone has written a dot-to-XML convertor, to an XML format acceptable to yEd.
Tried Scrivener. It seemed ok at first but then got clunky. My IT-illiterate girlfriend soon got into trouble using it. So is there a better approach/tool?
I wondered about CeltX. A web-search confirmed that it could be “persuaded” to act as basis for eBook authoring. But how good is that approach in practice? Only one way to find out – try it out!
Provided I remember, I will post my experience of it back as an append-edit to this very blog-Post…
I wanted a graph editor where I could define the connectivity on-the-fly, including inserting new nodes partway along existing connections. Something “fluid” to use.
I found it: yEd, available at http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.html. Superbly slick, functional, multi-platform and free (gratuit), even for commercial use.
Main reason for wanting such a thing was to be able to document the media depenencies in a multimedia (e.g. video) project. For example I might begin with an Adobe Premiere project based on raw footage. I would document that in a connectivity-graph having a RawFootage node (object) with an arrowed line coming out of it and going into a Project node. Later on, I might decide to enhance (e.g. CPU-intensively de-noise) the footage and then use that enhanced footage in the project instead (media-replace). Such an intervention would not have been planned, it would have been an after-thought. To bring my documentation up-to-date, in my connectivity-graph, I would want to interpose an Enhance node in the existing footage-to-project connection. Being able to do that in one single step would be great (no need for individual steps such as delete connection, add node, connect source to node, connect node to project). Having made many such changes and additions over time, the diagram might become untidy and in need of rearrangement. So ideally the application should offer Auto-Arrangement, to produce or at least provide a starting-point towards a tidier arrangement.
The same approach could apply to many things, including general brainstorming/mind-mapping, drama/story-design (prior to screenplays/scripts) and plain down-to-earth production of explanatory graphic diagrams as media themselves for incorporation in multimedia projects.
All this is way beyond the diagramming tool I have most used in the past few years, namely Visio – at least the (old) versions I have encountered. I have dabbled with GraphViz, which auto-generates/arranges diagrams from formal connectivity (etc.) definitions in geeky formal notation. GraphViz gets the job done but from my personal experience it is somewhat clunky and slow to use (involving frequent re-experiments and reading of lookup-notes). I want something slicker, more “GUI”, more intuitive…
Haha! Such a thing does exist! I found it! Not only does it allow the kind of graph-editing flexibility I am looking for, it can also import data from Excel etc. and auto-generate graphs from that. So if I want I can document my connectivity/dependency information first in Excel or Notepad (say) with a view to generating a diagram from it at a subsequent stage. And it is multi-platform (based on Java) and it is free (gratuit).
It is called yEd and is available at http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.html
I want to run some python scripts, whose instructions state the need to run apt-get first. The apt-get command is from unix-land, whereas I use mainly Windows. How can this apparent obstacle be overcome?
I guess first I should try the “easy way”, i.e. get the script running on a unix machine e.g. a Mac}
Google:[apt-get windows 7]:
I recently came across a handy script for recording streams. It was in the scripting language python. So I went to obtain it. So far no problem.
But that got me thinking: I’d read somewhere a long time ago of python, or was it ruby (on rails or otherwise), being used to support broadcast or film digital production workflows. So first I wanted to confirm that, through web-search. Then second I wanted to compare the languages, to see which one I felt best about.
Google:[python ruby workflow video production adobe avid]
GMIC: An Image Processing Pipeline(s) Scripting Language
I found this by accident, but it looks really handy for “industrial-scale” image processing.
There exist Wavelet-based filters/plugins for Gimp.
Simplest to use are the Wavelet Sharpen and Wavelet Denoise filters. Nevertheless, the following text-tutorial for Wavelet Decompose filter, provides a useful grounding in the pragmatocs of what wavelets are (in our image-editing-in-Gimp context).
I stumbled upon the following Forum thread, including a download (Zip file) of a number of filters compatible with Gimp v2.8, including Wavelet-based ones. Here’s the link:
Once installed, the Wavelet filters are available in Gimp’s Menu:
The MathMap plugin for Gimp provides:
Example Scripts and Visual Results:
Video (Screencast) Presentations:
Explanatory Websites (BUT see further below for special required installation procedure instructions for Gimp v2.8):
Download & Installation instructions
I updated my existing Gimp 2.6 to the latest version, 2.8.
Information on plug-ins (plugins) and the “Plug-ins Registry” (a central but non quality-or-safeness guaranteed repository):
I used to use this language back in 1990. It matches my way of programming fairly well. Now I have some concepts I want to try out, so what’s available now? What’s best and free or low-cost? Is a development environment for it available in the form of an iPad app? Or can it be used produce iPad apps?
Google [best version of smalltalk]:
Now about iOS (iPhhone/iPad) devices:
Being as I am mostly Windows-based, I’ll give Dolphin Smalltalk a go…
Image-Stacking: motion-compensated superimposing (eg by averageing) of objects in a set or sequence of images
I’ve traditionally used RegiStax, currently at version 6. It works, but I wonder if there are any alternatives, since:
I’ll give AstroStack a try.